Nov
8
Hurricane Paloma, a Category 3 storm, eyes Cuba
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GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - Late-season Hurricane Paloma strengthened into a Category 3 storm as it lashed the Cayman Islands with wind and rain Friday, knocking down trees and signs.
The storm was expected to lose some strength overnight before punching Cuba’s midsection on Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Cuba already is suffering from billions of dollars in damage from two previous hurricanes this season.
“It’s not like it’s new to them, unfortunately,” said Dave Roberts, a U.S. Navy hurricane specialist. “If I were living on the island, I would at least prepare for a Category 2.”
Cuban official newspaper Granma, recalling past late-season hurricanes such as a 1932 storm that killed about 3,000 people, said Paloma poses “a potential danger for the island.”
The Cayman Islands government asked all hotels to remove guests from the ground and first floors. Nearly 40 people were already staying in the islands’ seven shelters.
Water service across Grand Cayman was turned off, and power likely will be cut as the storm nears, hazard management director Barbara Carby said.
“We have asked everybody to come off the streets and to be home and safe right now,” she said.
Stranded tourists watched dark clouds gather and saw the storm whip up 10-foot (3-meter) waves from their hotels or beachfront restaurants.
“It was a real surprise,” said Rick Douglas, 50, of Toronto, who checked weather Web sites before flying to the Caribbean. “It just said there was a tropical depression starting, but I didn’t think it would turn into anything serious.”
His wife, Susan Douglas, was confident they would be safe as long as they follow orders.
“Grand Cayman has been there and done that, so they are prepared,” she said.
Paloma’s top winds Friday night were near 115 mph, and it was centered about 25 miles south of Grand Cayman, heading northeast at 7 mph.
Havana’s communist government activated the early stages of its highly organized civil defense system. In central and eastern Cuba, people were advised to stay tuned to state media for news of Paloma’s progress and be ready to evacuate.
Paloma was aiming toward the central-eastern city of Camaguey, which was particularly hard-hit by Hurricane Ike in early September.
Ike and Hurricane Gustav, which struck the island in late August, together caused an estimated $9.4 billion in damage. Nearly a third of Cuba’s crops were destroyed, causing widespread shortages of fresh produce and prompting authorities to order the planting of vegetable greens and other short-term vegetables.
Forecasters expect Paloma to weaken into a tropical storm over Cuba and then steer south of Florida through the Bahamas and into the Atlantic.
Cayman Islands Gov. Stuart Jack said Friday that a British Royal Navy ship was on the way and would be available to provide humanitarian assistance if needed.
The airport closed Friday morning after extra flights were added to fly out some people late Thursday.
Muniran Charran, a construction worker from Guyana, said he first heard about the storm Thursday night over the radio.
“We didn’t really have any time to prepare because the banks and the stores all closed so early today,” he said.
He was drinking beers with friends in the downstairs lobby of their beachfront apartment complex.
“What we’ve been seeing all day is just a lot of rain and strong winds,” Guyana native Shik Khan said. “We hope that when we wake up, everything is fine.”
Nov
4
Americans are voting in their historic election with front-running democrat Barack Obama seeking to become the first black president and his republican rival John Mccain hoping for a poll-defying comeback.
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After an epic campaign, voters could also spark a political realignment in Washington, with democrats targeting big gains in the senate and house of representatives after eight turbulent years under President George W. Bush. History’s longest, most costly white house campaign ended with Obama the hot favorite, enjoying wide leads in national polls and the edge in a string of battleground states which could swing the election either way. In the eye of the worst financial storm since the 1930s and with us troops embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both Obama and Mccain have vowed to restore the frayed self-confidence of the world’s lone superpower. Obama and Mccain were chasing the 270 electoral votes needed to take the white house. More than 100 million people are expected to go to the polls today, to add to 30 million advance votes already cast. First results were not expected until 7:00 pm eastern time. Mccain scheduled an 11th-hour campaign in New Mexico and Colorado, two traditionally republican states which are under threat from Obama. Senator Obama, would become the first African American president, after a stunning rise to the pinnacle of us politics - he was not even a us senator four years ago. But in a sad turn of events , Obama learned that Madelyn Dunham, the grandmother who brought him up, had died in his native Hawaii from cancer, aged 86. With polls showing 90 percent of voters believe the United States is on the wrong track, Obama should be on the way to victory — but whether his race or perceived lack of experience could make voters change their mind will be determined after results come in. Mccain aides dispute poll numbers favoring Obama, and argue he can still win. The democrat has an easier path to the 270 electoral votes and has a small but solid lead in many of the battleground states needed to win the white house. He may have built an advantage as millions of Americans voted early. And while polls opened in the northeastern state of Vermont at 5:00 am, the tiny New Hampshire towns of Dixville notch and hart’s location played their traditional role of hosting the first election day, voting just after midnight. Obama won a majority of votes in both places. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s foreign minister Rais Yatim backed us presidential candidate Barack Obama saying a victory for the democrat would improve America’s relations with the world.
Oct
6
WASHINGTON - A growing number of economists believe the country is on the brink of - or already in - its first recession since 2001 and that it will be longer lasting.
That’s part of the latest outlook from forecasters in a survey being released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics, also know by its acronym NABE.
Close to 69 percent of the economists think the economy has started or will enter a recession this year. That’s up from 56 percent in a survey in May. “The general view is …. that this recession will be longer than the last two - lasting roughly one year, but relatively mild,” the survey concluded. The 2001 recession started in March and ended in November. The one before that began in July 1990 and ended in March 1991.
Under one classic definition, a recession happens when the economy shrinks for two quarters in a row. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the recognized arbiters for dating recessions, uses a more complicated formula that takes into account such things as employment and income growth.
“Business economists have become more negative on the economic outlook for the next several quarters as a result of the tightness in credit markets and weakness in consumer spending, expecting growth to stall in the fourth quarter,” said Chris Varvares, president-elect of the NABE and president of Macroeconomic Advisers.
“If financial conditions fail to improve quickly, near-term economic prospects could deteriorate markedly,” he warned.
For all of this year, the economy’s growth is expected to slow to 1.8 percent, down from 2 percent last year, the NABE forecasters predicted. Growth will turn even weaker next year at 1.6 percent, they said.
The survey was taken before President Bush speedily signed an unprecedented $700 billion financial bailout into law on Friday shortly after Congress completed action.
The plan would allow the government to buy bad assets from banks and other institutions to shore up the financial industry. The rationale behind this is that by taking these toxic debts off financial companies’ balances sheets, they’ll be in a better position to raise capital and more inclined to boost lending.
The credit clog, which has intensified in recent weeks, has roiled Wall Street and poses a grave danger to the economy, warned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who backed the bailout measure.
Still, even with the bailout, many analysts predict more pain ahead. Employers will keep cutting jobs and the unemployment rate - now at 6.1 percent - will climb higher. In September alone, the economy lost 159,000 jobs, the most in more than five years, the government reported Friday.
Sep
30
By voting down the proposed $700 billion financial bailout package - and causing a spectacular stock market rout - a majority of members in the House of Representatives made a clear statement that they didn’t want to put taxpayers on the hook for the failures of financial institutions.
But there’s a catch: taxpayers are already on the hook for the failures of financial institutions, and it’s possible that the bill will actually be larger without bailout legislation than with it. That’s because the regulators who mind the financial industry - the Federal Reserve, Treasury and FDIC - will keep doing what they’ve been doing: stepping in to prevent the chaotic failure of banks and other large financial institutions. This means continuing to put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars at risk, but in a way that adheres to no clear plan of action and doesn’t require members of Congress to explicitly approve their actions.
On Monday afternoon, Wall Street basically stopped trading to watch TV - mainly CNBC - to see how the House of Representatives would vote on the $700 billion bailout package. When it first started looking like the bill would fail, the Dow plummeted 389 points, or 3.6%, in just seven minutes. If it had continued at that pace for much longer, this would have been perhaps the most harrowing day in stock market history. It didn’t, but things were still really, really bad. The Dow ended the day down 778 points, or 7%, and the S&P 500 - a better measure of the overall market - was down 107 points, or 8.8%, its worst performance since the 1987 market crash. And markets for bonds and short-term loans were, for the most part, nonexistent.
So what happens now? On Capitol Hill, House leaders said they’ll try again soon. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson practically begged for a revised deal in his brief appearance after the market carnage. “Our tool kit is substantial but insufficient,” he said. The market’s traumatized reaction today may change some minds and some votes.
In asking Congress 11 days ago for the authority to spend up to $700 billion to buy troubled assets, Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were hoping to share some of the responsibility and the blame - and get the freedom to boost companies that weren’t already on the brink of failure. Instead, they’re back to being crisis managers for the moment - and maybe for the duration of the crisis.
That’s not all bad, especially now that most of the endangered financial institutions are commercial banks. The Federal Government has clearly defined that authorities take them over, merge them out of existence or shut them down - whereas it had to make things up as it went along with investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and insurer AIG. That’s why the demise of giant banks Washington Mutual and Wachovia, arranged over the past week by the FDIC, occurred in a far more orderly fashion than the non-bank meltdowns.
But orderly isn’t the same as cheap. To get Citigroup to absorb Wachovia, the FDIC agreed to share the risk on a $312 billion portfolio of loans (Citi has to eat the first $42 billion in potential losses; anything above that hits the FDIC fund).
Also, the fact that every big FDIC deal so far in this crisis has been different - IndyMac was allowed to fail, with only insured deposits safe; WaMu was seized, but all depositors were protected; and Wachovia was sold in a deal that protected both depositors and owners of the company’s bonds but left shareholders with very little - has left investors guessing about the fate of the rest of the banking world. Hardest hit in today’s market sell-off were regional banks like Sovereign Bancorp and National City, perhaps because they seem too small to get special FDIC treatment.
Federal authorities are going to keep doing whatever they can to keep the financial system from collapsing. Taxpayers will bear the risks and the costs of that, whether Congress votes to put them there or not. And it’s possible - although nobody can know for sure - that this ad hoc approach will end up costing more than an up-front $700 billion bailout. Source
Sep
26
Anthony Kim holds a four shot lead in the opening round of the PGA tour golf championship at Atlanta in Georgia.
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70. The 23-year-old American, seeking his third PGA tour victory this year, fired a sparkling six-under-par 64 on a breezy, sun-baked day at east lake golf club. Kim, who played a significant role in the U.S. Ryder cup victory over Europe at Valhalla, piled up eight birdies and two bogeys to pull clear of a high-quality Leaderboard. American world number two Phil Mickelson opened with a 68 to share second place with South afrIcans Ernie Els and masters champion Trevor Immelman. South Korean Kj Choi carded a 69 while Canadian left-hander mike weir and Spaniard Sergio Garcia returned matching
Sep
22
New Test Shows If You Are a Shopaholic
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A new shopaholic test could tell if you should you leave your credit card at home when heading out to the mall.
The test makes it clear that there’s shopping and then there’s over-the-top purchasing that can wreak havoc on a person’s life. People who become preoccupied with buying stuff and repeatedly spend money on items, regardless of need, are commonly referred to as shopaholics. Scientists call it compulsive buying.
The new test was administered along with a survey that revealed that nearly 9 percent of a sample of 550 university staff members, mostly women, would be considered compulsive buyers. Past studies had put the incidence of compulsive buying somewhere between 2 percent and 8 percent 15 years ago, and more recently, at nearly 6 percent, the researchers say. Other research has found men are just as addicted to shopping as women.
The new test includes six statements, for which individuals answer on a 7-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree:
My closet has unopened shopping bags in it.
Others might consider me a “shopaholic.”
Much of my life centers around buying things.
I buy things I don’t need.
I buy things I did not plan to buy.
I consider myself an impulse purchaser.
Respondents who score 25 or higher would be considered compulsive buyers.
“We are living in a consumption-oriented society and have been spending ourselves into serious difficulty,” researcher Kent Monroe, a marketing professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told LiveScience. “Compulsive buying is an addiction that can be harmful to the individual, families, relationships. It is not just something that only afflicts low-income people.”
Wondering where your score lies? “An individual could respond to the six items to check whether they may have these tendencies,” Monroe said. “However, as with any attempt at self-diagnosing, it should be carefully done and honestly responded to.”
Monroe and his colleagues found that compulsive buying was linked to materialism, reduced self-esteem, depression, anxiety and stress. Compulsive shoppers had positive feelings associated with buying, and they also tended to hide purchases, return items, have more family arguments about purchases and have more maxed-out credit cards.
Previous scales for identifying problem buyers are lacking because they depend in large part on the consequences of shopping, such as financial difficulties and family strain over money matters, the researchers note. But for compulsive shoppers with higher incomes, money matters could be non-existent.
A dwindling bank account is just one of the upshots of shopping ’til you drop. Others include family conflicts, stress, depression and loss of self-esteem.
The shopaholic test is just part of the answer.
“There needs to be more research not only identifying people who have a tendency to buy compulsively, but also on developing education and self-help programs for people who are buying things they do not need or use,” Monroe said. “It can lead to a waste of resources and to deterioration in families and relationships.”
The research is detailed in the December issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Financial support for the research was provided by the J. M. Jones endowment fund at the University of Illinois.
Source
Aug
30
A senior Iranian military commander has warned that any U.S. or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic would start a new world war.
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Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, in a statement carried by the state news agency Irna said it is evident that if such a challenge occurs, the fake and artificial regimes will be eliminated before anything. The United States and its staunch ally Israel, accuse Iran of seeking atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting its nuclear drive is aimed solely at providing electricity for a growing population when its reserves of fossil fuels run out. The united states has never ruled out military action against Iran over its defiance of international demands for an enrichment freeze, but so far is pursuing the diplomatic route with calls for more sanctions. Another top military commander said Iran was prepared to “take the enemies off-guard” and would unveil more weapons in case of an attack. Source
Aug
29
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani says a strategy is being evolved to improve health care system in the country.
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Addressing a function organized by Pakistan pharmaceutical manufacturers association in Lahore he emphasized to focus on local raw material to provide drugs to the people on affordable rates. The Prime Minister stressed the need for taking steps to fight hepatitis as eighteen percent population of the country is suffering from this disease.
Aug
27
A Sudanese passenger jet hijacked by unknown assailants soon after it took off from Darfur has landed in Libya.
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There are more than 100 people on board the plane. The Libyan officials are holding dialogue with the unknown number of hijackers while all passengers remained on board. The hijackers, who are believed to be hard-line Darfur rebel group, have asked for jet fuel in order to fly on to Paris.
Aug
27
Eight people were killed and several others injured in a bomb blast in Humak town of Islamabad.
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Some of the injured persons are stated to be in critical condition. The interior ministry said the bomb blast occurred in a hotel when it was crowded. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the blast.
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